How Gunner Stockton approaches spring with Georgia football in new role

Gunner Stockton stood at a podium for the first time this spring in the old Georgia football team meeting room for more than eight minutes Tuesday night.

Stockton’s answers were short. He smiled often. His hands were in his pockets of his black Georgia sweat pants nearly the entire time.

Here was the quarterback who stepped in for an injured Carson Beck in the SEC championship game, helping lead the Bulldogs to the win over Texas and made his first career start against Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl loss in a College Football Playoff quarterfinal.

Now he’s the presumed starter.

“Yeah, It’s a different role,” said Stockton, who was 20 of 32 for 234 yards and a touchdown in the bowl game.  “I play more of a leadership aspect. You’re leading every day, just that position, and being able to take command. Just lead the right way and be me.”

Nobody would confuse Stockton for the more flashy Beck, a two-year Georgia starter who pulled his name from the NFL Draft after declaring and transferred to Miami.

Beck, cashing in with NIL last year, was noticeable and he made headlines again in Miami when luxury cars were stolen from the home he lived in with Miami basketball player and social media influencer Hanna Cavinder.

Stockton was asked when he found out that Beck was transferring to Miami.

He said “like everybody,” when the news broke, not from Beck directly.

“He was busy,” Stockton said. “I know he’s been busy right now just with spring ball and everything but hope he’s doing good.”

That didn’t appear to be any sort of shot at Beck even if some made it that way.

Stockton actually said earlier he took away “a lot of good things from Carson.”

“Heck, I watched last night, I’ve been working on getting my footwork and everything honed in and he has really good footwork,” Stockton said of Beck. “There’s stuff like that and heck, the way he really processed information really well.”

Stockton is now a redshirt junior. This is his fourth spring since enrolling in January of 2022 out of Rabun County High.

“The big things, I’ve been working on footwork, watching some film and that’s the thing about spring ball, we install and we’ve got a bunch of time to watch film so just looking in on the little things to hone in on,” he said.

Stockton may not have played extensively in his three Georgia seasons, but he has logged plenty of time practicing in the offense outside of Saturday game days.

“It helps,” coach Kirby Smart said. “He understands what we’re trying to do. He’s been through it. I mean, I think about if we had all Gunners at every position they understand the volume of reps, what we’re trying to do. He knows the inside and out and then I get frustrated and impatient when other guys don’t know it like him. You kind of have to slow yourself down and say ‘Wait a second, this guy’s going through, I don’t know if it’s his third or fourth. These other guys they’re in their second or first.’”

At quarterback, in particular, the Bulldogs lack experience.

Redshirt freshman Ryan Puglisi missed most of last spring with a leg injury and hasn’t played a snap.

Hezekiah Millender from Clarke Central and Ryan Montgomery, coming off a knee injury, are early enrollees.

The third-string quarterback could be walk-on Colter Ginn.

Sophomore linebacker Chirs Cole sat in the front row on the side watching Stockton take questions.

When he first got to Georgia as a mid-year enrollee in 2024, one of the first players he talked to was Stockton.

“He’s just always happy,” Cole said. “I love being around him. He always has a smile on his face.”

Center Drew Bobo said teammates “embraced Gunner” after the SEC championship win and “tried to bring him in because we knew he had never started a game before and really last season he didn’t really get as much snaps as people thought he would going into the season because we didn’t have as many blowout games as the previous years.”

Bobo said Stockton led in offseason workouts heading into spring ball.

“He’s a tough kid that loves football, that loves his teammates,” Smart said. “You’re not going to get a lot of rah-rah out of Gunner. I feel like that’s his role. He earns people’s respect by how he works and how he carries himself.”